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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A wild one in Philly

The baseball gods shall giveth, and the baseball gods shall taketh away. Even though they gave the Blue Jays plenty of chances to win last night's game over Philadelphia, the baseball gods decided to give the Blue Jays one more chance; and finally the Bluebirds took advantage of it.

Incredibly, the Blue Jays were 0 for 9 with the bases loaded and somehow only managed to win by 5 runs. The Phillies basically gift-wrapped the game for the Jays in the 7th, 8th, 9th, but they couldn't finally take advantage until the 10th inning. A base-running blunder by Alex Rios almost cost the Jays a chance to win the ball game. Although Nick Leyva was waving Rios home, he should have had the common sense to tag up on a ball hit into left field. In retrospect, it was a big mistake but it's forgivable because Rios is 10 for 20 since being moved down in the lineup. He'll likely just have a stern talking to and respond by getting 3 or 4 hits in the next game.

Vernon Wells is officially out of the dog house (for a few days at least). His infield single in the 9th inning helped spark the rally to help tie the game. V-Dub followed that up with another single in the 10th, most likely lowering his status on the Vernon Wells Hatred Advisory System to "High". Congratulations Vernon, for the first time in a long time your name is not the one that callers will be immediately denouncing on Jays Talk.

Briefly on the Scott Downs situation; Bastian tweets that Downs' X-Rays were negative but it's likely he'll go on the disabled list for the time being. It's another bad luck situation for the Blue Jays that their new closer will probably go in the DL and now this could open the door for B.J. Ryan to return to the role that he occupied at the start of the season. Downs has a history of ankle and foot injuries over these past few seasons, so I'm sure everything is just a precautionary measure to make sure he doesn't re-aggravate it.

Finally, let's give credit to Ricky Romero for pitching another great game. Romero racked up nine strikeouts - six of which were against Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez. Not exactly an easy feat to shut down two of the most feared hitters in the National League, so a tip of the cap to RR Cool Jay.

It took seven tries, but the Blue Jays finally have a win against a National League team. 1-6 in interleague play, baby!

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About the Blue Jay Hunter

The Blue Jay Hunter is a blog about the Toronto Blue Jays, which takes a look at the team under the microscope. Mixed in with just a hint of humour, and a shred of dignity. I also have an affinity for baseball moustaches.